Spain’s Socialists will grant amnesty to Catalan separatists in return for support of new government

By CIARÁN GILES and JOSEPH WILSON
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Socialist Party has struck a deal with a fringe Catalan separatist party to grant an amnesty for potentially thousands of people involved in the region’s failed secession bid in exchange for its key backing of acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new government. Socialist Party official Santos Cerdán announced the deal in Brussels after sealing the agreement with the party led by Carles Puigdemont. Puigdemont fled to Belgium after leading the failed 2017 independence attempt for Catalonia. This greatly boosts Sánchez’s chances of forming another minority leftist coalition government. Tens of thousands of people have been protesting the amnesty. Violence broke out outside the Socialist Party’s headquarters late Thursday and police made arrests.